Jackson Advocate

Race Issue In Trinidad Sparked By East Indians And Negroes Sensation Caused By Anti-Indian Speech Of Negro Leader

Port of Spain, Trinidad.-Race-bloc voting is an old political story in the United States; but for an American observer in Trinidad there are some fascinating variations on that theme.

Here on this teeming green island the great game of politics is played with an exotic twist involving the two dominant racial blocs -the East Indians and the Negroes. The latest development is a report that three members of

(Continued on Page Two)
Race Issue ...
(Continued from Page One)

Chief Minister Eric Williams' Cabinet want to resign over what has been taken by the Indian community as an attack on them by Mr. Williams, whose political base is the Negro vote. Two of the men are Indians and the third is closely associated with them politically.

Any such resignation could well bring down the controversial Williams government, a major event in the Caribbean. And putting aside any possible resignation, it is important to consider the situation spotlighted by the report.

Politics Revolutionized

In the past few years Mr. Williams revolutionized Trinidad politics by establishing its first truly mass political party, the People's National Movement. He is an Oxford Doctor of Philosophy, an economist, and not at all in the earlier tradition of the "barefooted and unwashed" leaders who have before now led the Negro people of Trinidad.

Up to now Mr. Williams has had a fairly strong appeal for at least part of the Indian vote because of his carefully reasoned appeal to the working people of the island, a mild socialism. Yet two months ago, just after his West Indian Federal Labor Party was soundly defeated in the federation elections in winning only four of 10 Trinidad federal seats, he lashed out at the Indian community.
They had voted for the federation opposition, the Democratic Labor Party.

The "anti-Indian" speech caused a sensation on Trinidad which subsided during the recent visit of Princess Margaret and the inauguration of the federal Legislature. But it has been revived with these reports of Indian-bloc Cabinet resignations.

Criticism Voiced

The reason for Mr. Williams losing political ground in the elections is not as simple as race. That was part of it—the voicing of the Indians for the opposition—but the taxation required to put through the Williams' program was another. Another was an attack on Mr. Williams' regime as "one-man rule."
(He is accused of being opinionated and dogmatic, which thinking may also be behind any Cabinet resignations.)
Yet the fascinating political question in Trinidad today is, "Has Chief Minister Williams alienated the Indian vote?" If he should be forced to face islandwise elections because of Cabinet resignations, the answer to this question could be the answer to the election result. His Woodford Square speech, which was taken as anti-Indian, is certainly being used as a political gimmick by his opposition.

A motion has been filed in the Trinidad Legislative Council condemning the Chief Minister for the speech and asking the House express confidence in the East Indian community.

These East Indians are an intriguing group. The largest minority in the island population, within 10 to 20 years they may become a majority because of a high birth rate. They save their money and don't hesitate to work long hours in the bush. They are clannish.

All of these characteristics have made them unpopular with a Negro population which is generally more free and easy with its money and probably does not work as hard. The result: Indians and Negroes are not employed together in Trinidad. This subsurface Negro-Indian feeling now brought to the open by the Williams' speech and the reports of Cabinet resignations could be the most important political fact in Trinidad for the next few years.

As far as the West Indies federation is concerned, the Indians have been voting for the Democratic Labor Party, which is now out of power. If Cheddi Jagan, British Guiana's Chief Minister, should bring "BG" into the federation in the next five years as is expected, the Indian vote would have a new aspect. For Mr. Jagan is an East Indian and it is conceivable that the party of the East Indians would have some attraction for him.

With a tight division in the federal Legislature, Mr. Jagan might well swing the balance of power in the federation.